10 Unusual True Crime Stories — Full Breakdown & Transcript

[00:00] The duck stands about six stories tall. It was last brought to the city for Canada's 150th anniversary. Welcome to WatchMojo. And today, we're counting down our picks for some of the most unusual true crime stories out there.

[00:14] Really makes you wonder about who's out there. Are they your neighbors? Are they your business associates? You never know. Number 10. Florida's very own Doogie Howser.

[00:26] A guilty plea from the West Palm Beach man charged with impersonating a doctor. In today's installment of Crazy Tales from Florida, we bring you Malachi Love Robinson, or Dr. Love as he'd like to be called.

[00:39] To be clear, Love Robinson was not a doctor when he was caught after spending weeks wandering the halls of St. Mary's Medical Center with a stethoscope and a lab coat. Police say this baby-faced physician doesn't have an M.D.

[00:53] Are you a fraud? Because it seems like everything you're saying to me is evasive. I don't appreciate your tone. Since he hadn't treated patients, it was mostly no harm done and he was let go. He later opened his own clinic where he did treat multiple patients,

[01:07] except he still wasn't a medical doctor. Love Robinson was arrested for practicing medicine without a license after reportedly performing a physical exam on an undercover cop,

[01:19] with fraud and larceny charges later tacked on as well. Investigators say he was posing as a doctor as a teenager and treating patients without a license. They also say he stole money from one of the victims he was apparently treating.

[01:33] Number nine, the great toilet paper crisis. During the COVID-19 pandemic, we endured isolation and quarantine, Clorox wiping packages like they insulted our honor,

[01:45] and staring despondently at empty grocery shelves. The pandemic brought on shopping desperation as people rushed to stockpile household goods. And for a time, it looked like nothing was more valuable than toilet paper.

[01:58] Reports quickly emerged of people even stealing the precious bathroom commodity, with one particularly extreme case in Hong Kong's Mong Kok district. A truck driver making a 5 a.m. supermarket delivery was ambushed by three men

[02:11] and robbed at knife point for 600 rolls of toilet paper. At least two of the men were later arrested for the robbery as authorities assured people the paper would keep on rolling.

[02:23] Number eight, Balloon Boy. A little boy caught in a runaway balloon. He just got to the ground. Even when it turned out Falcon Heaney was never airborne and was hiding at home all that time. I'm saying the fine doctor.

[02:36] Flying objects of all shapes and sizes mystified people for decades. One memorable sighting was a silver helium balloon spotted flying over Fort Collins, Colorado in 2009. The kicker came when couple and reality TV alumni Richard and Mayumi Heen claimed their son Falcon was inside the balloon.

[02:56] Authorities pursued the balloon for around two hours before it landed child-free a few miles from Denver International Airport. The race was on to find the missing six-year-old, dubbed Balloon Boy, and the world initially breathed a sigh of relief when he was found hiding at home Thank you for your show It became very clear to us at that point that they were lying

[03:18] It was widely believed, however, that Falcon had never actually been in the balloon. And it had all been a giant hoax and publicity stunt orchestrated by his parents for some extra attention. I was six years old and I was able to affect the whole state of the country.

[03:34] Number seven, Rentahitman.com. This is just a lot of solicitations from people around the world. Ennis has been getting these messages for over a decade from all sorts of people hoping for some help.

[03:47] Sometimes a creative joke can evolve into something a lot more. A lesson California resident Bob Ennis first learned in 2008. Three years earlier, he had purchased the web domain rentahitman.com as a tongue-in-cheek way to promote his IT security business.

[04:03] To his surprise, people started reaching out requesting actual assassinations, some promising payment and providing details on their desired targets. Innes did the responsible thing and began reaching out to law enforcement.

[04:17] I responded back with a very simple email. Do you still require services and would you like me to pretend contact with the field operative? And she responded, yes. The website is still active to this day, but by Innes' estimation,

[04:33] he has had a dozen people arrested and helped spoil 150 attempted murders. In a similar case, Texas resident Steve Gordon was arrested for trying to order a hitman for his wife on Craigslist.

[04:45] Yeah, hey you. You're looking for a hitman? You got an issue that needs resolving? Look no further than Rent-A-Hitman, your point-and-click solution. Number six, the fake rubber dock.

[04:58] This giant 30,000-pound rubber duck is part of Ontario's 150th festivity. Can't miss it. The province of Ontario celebrated Canada's 150th birthday in the summer of 2017.

[05:11] There wasn't a UFC fight or massive concert, but they did have Navy ships, lumberjacks, and a massive rubber duck. The 30,000-pound, 61-foot bathtub toy came with a healthy dose of controversy.

[05:24] And not just because of its hefty $150,000 price tag. This giant inflatable rubber duck cost taxpayers $121,000. I want everyone to enjoy their Canada Day, obviously, but I fail to see the connection between a giant rubber duck and our history or heritage.

[05:41] It was allegedly a counterfeit. Dutch artist Florentine Hoffman debuted this gargantuan rubber bird in 2007 as a message of unity and conscientiousness.

[05:53] The duck coming to Ontario, however, was supposedly made by another artist for a profit. The claim was disputed, and the world was left with another giant duck that could burst or deflate at the absolute worst moment.

[06:06] The world's largest rubber duck is coming back to Toronto this weekend. It's all for the Toronto Waterfront Festival. Number five, the Great Canadian Maple Syrup Heist. It just surprising how passionate Canadians are about their maple syrup Over the course of several months in 2011 and 2012 a group of perpetrators planned an elaborate heist targeting Canada most famous export

[06:30] They swiped over 9,500 barrels from a Quebec warehouse, siphoning off the maple syrup in a remote location and returning the barrels filled with water. It's $150 million in maple syrup, and I'm the only guy guarding it.

[06:45] Yes. The 3,000 tons of stolen nectar were then trafficked to various small business and distributors in the U.S. and Canada before the operation was discovered in July 2012.

[06:57] 17 men were eventually arrested, and many received prison sentences and fines. What makes this whole thing even more absurd and on-brand Canadian is that this multi-million dollar robbery is,

[07:09] adjusting for inflation, Canada's most expensive heist as of July 2026. Who better than the invisible man to steal a million dollars of syrup right out from under their noses?

[07:21] Number four, Romanian taxes and hexes. On January 1st, 2011, a new Romanian tax reform went into effect. As of January 1, you are paying income tax for the first time in Romanian history,

[07:36] thanks to a new law which says that witchcraft is now a legally taxable profession. It recognized several professions that would now have to pay income tax, including valet drivers, driving instructors, and witches.

[07:49] Yep, you heard that right. Sabrina now had to pay 16% tax to the man, along with pension and health care contributions. There was a long debate in the parliament in Romania, I think it was like 10 years ago, like 8 years ago.

[08:01] They wanted to introduce a tax on magic, because there's a lot of fortune tellers, and there's a lot of people that predict the future, and they tell you the mortal number, that kind of stuff, and they don't get taxed.

[08:13] But they wanted to introduce a tax on the witches. It was a witch's stuff, right? Unsurprisingly, the witches were not happy. Many threatened to curse the government at a special gathering at the Danube using only the apothecary's finest ingredients,

[08:27] mandrake, cat dung, and deceased canines. As incredibly stupid as this sounds, witches have long been a part of Romania's traditions and culture, and the threat was not taken idly.

[08:39] The law still passed, though, setting off numerous clashes between the witches and the government. And then the problem was, the witches threatened to cast magic upon the government.

[08:53] They threatened to cast magic on the government, and they decided to give up the tax. Number three. The Mozzarella Mafia. Believe it or not, maple syrup wasn't the only food item historically smuggled between the U.S. and Canada.

[09:10] You know, we don't typically find people stealing $13,000 worth of cheese. In 2012, authorities on both sides of the border uncovered an operation that had smuggled $200,000 Canadian dollars worth of mozzarella cheese into Canada.

[09:24] For months, police have been sniffing around pizza shops in Fort Erie asking about cheese. The crew which included one current and one former Canadian police officer had reportedly tried to sell their contraband to various pizzerias and restaurants In case you were wondering yes Canada does have its own dairy industry

[09:42] and they do make their own cheese. It's typically more expensive than U.S. cheese, though, thanks to Canada's dairy trade controls and import restrictions. The crew also brought in chicken wings and pickles,

[09:54] because what's a good cheese dish without some sides? It was heartening when a fellow officer is involved in meetings and all this, but like anyone else, the process of the bill before the court.

[10:06] Number two, grand theft brains. The headlines are startling. A baffling case of 100 missing brains blared a newspaper in England today. You have a lot of different options to make yourself smarter.

[10:19] You can read books, solve puzzles, or learn new languages. One thing that probably wouldn't help is stealing your smarts from someone else. That didn't stop reports in 2014 that 100 brains had gone missing and were presumed stolen from the University of Texas at Austin.

[10:36] Reports last night that campus scientists had displaced hundreds of human brain specimens lit up social media. The media went wild with many blaming drunken students, pranksters, and the scarecrow we all know and love.

[10:50] The media frenzy eventually uncovered a rather mundane story. The brains hadn't been stolen. They had simply been destroyed 12 years earlier. Maybe some of that lost intelligence could have helped with better record keeping and inventorying.

[11:06] Right now, we haven't found anything to suggest that Charles Whitman's brain was in fact part of this collection. Want more True Crime on WatchMojo? Check out our dedicated 24-hour live stream.

[11:18] True Crime all the time. We're going to have a great time together, Cheryl. Number one, United States versus one Tyrannosaurus Bataar skeleton. It was supposed to be a straightforward deal.

[11:32] Get a dinosaur skeleton and sell it for a lot of money. A Florida man has pleaded guilty to smuggling dinosaur bones into the United States, including the skeletons from Mongolia and the dinosaur fossil from China.

[11:44] Except Eric Percopi forgot a pretty basic rule of business. You can't sell what isn't yours. In a game of musical countries, the Florida businessman shipped the Tyrannosaurus Pitar skeleton from Mongolia to the United Kingdom to the United States.

[11:59] Eric Prokopi was described by prosecutors as a one-man black market in pre-soil fossils. He claimed the UK as its country of origin and attempted to sell it for a million dollars. Problem was, the Mongolian government hadn't authorized the skeleton's removal

[12:14] and petitioned to halt the sale. The skeleton was returned and Krakupi was arrested for smuggling and possession of stolen property, spending three months in jail. The incident raised awareness of the continued practice of dinosaur smuggling.

[12:35] Which of these stories sounded the most like they came out of a TV writer's room or AI hallucination? What other ones should have been on this list? Let us know in the comments below.